OXFORD — It’s well-documented by now.

Ole Miss got walloped at Georgia last November, ending the Rebels’ College Football Playoff hopes in the process.

Long before things ended between the hedges, however, Lane Kiffin was already assessing his program. Ole Miss, a team that would end the season 11-2 with a win over Penn State in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl, was too light and too short on both lines of scrimmage.

The Ole Miss bus hadn’t pulled out of Athens before Kiffin was telling his staff — and anyone who’d listen — that the Rebels were going to get into the transfer portal looking for impactful players on both the offensive and defensive lines.

Some 8 1/2 months after that loss to Kirby Smart’s Bulldogs, Ole Miss took the practice field for the first time in 2024, gearing up for the most anticipated season in Oxford in decades. The Rebels did so with a renovated roster, complete with much more size and length on both the offensive and defensive lines.

“This team hasn't won any games,” Kiffin said Wednesday. “They haven't played together and even players that have had previous success here or other places, that doesn't mean anything either. And seeing all the pieces out there — again doesn’t mean we're gonna be any good — but we do, for the first time since I've been here, look like a real team.”

Walter Nolen, Princely Umanmielen and Chris Hardie join a defensive line that already featured JJ Pegues and Jared Ivey. Several young players, including Jamarious Brown, Kamron Beavers and Kam Franklin, are also in the mix. Up front on offense, Gerquan Scott transferred in from Southern Miss and Julius Buelow and Nate Kalepo transferred from national runners-up Washington to join a veteran-laden unit. The difference from a season ago is easily noticeable.

“It just means that we actually have length and size like, you know, really good teams do,” Kiffin said. “That doesn't mean you're going to be any good. You got to get them to play together. You got to get them to play individually as well as they can and also to figure out what their roles are.

“But I do think we look a lot different, and people mention that a lot on defense, but we do look longer and more improved on the offensive line.”

Kiffin has been a part of championship teams as an assistant at USC and Alabama. He’s coached in the Southeastern Conference as a head coach at Tennessee for one season and at Ole Miss for the past four. He’s watched his teams line up against the nation’s best, so he knows what he’s looking for.

“I think that, like I said, again, it doesn’t mean we're gonna win games, but when you go out there and watch us, we look more like what Alabama and Georgia have looked like over the last four years when we go warm up against them,” Kiffin said.

Ole Miss opens the season Aug. 31 versus Furman.